Russian President Vladimir Putin And Wife Lyudmila Getting A Divorce

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife of almost 30 years, Lyudmila, 55, announced on Wednesday that they are divorcing, the AP reported. They made their statement together on TV, and Putin told Russia24 TV, “It was our joint decision, our marriage is over."

“My position and my work mean a life completely open to the public,” Putin, 60, said, according to Russian outlet RIA. “Some people are fine with that, some people are incompatible with that lifestyle.

“We practically never saw each other,” he continued. “We have our own lives.”

“This is a civilized divorce,” Lyudmila said. “I do not like publicity and the flights are complicated for me. We love our children, we are proud of them and see each other often.” She added that she and the president “will always be friends,” Huffington Post reports. “I am grateful he supports me.”

Putin and his wife, who married on July 28, 1983, have two daughters, Maria and Yekaterina.

In 2008, when rumors first began to swirl of Putin and Lyudmila divorcing, Russian newspaper Moskovski Korrespondent was suddenly shut down after reporting that Putin was planning to divorce his wife in order to marry 24-year-old Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, Fox News reported at the time. All parties denied the charges and the paper admitted they had no “factual basis” for its claim. There have been no claims of a similar nature made as of yet.